Monday, November 28, 2011

This tutorial will guide you through the process of converting PDF files so that they can be read in iBooks, the iPad application.

Update: you can now read PDF files directly in iBooks, without having to convert them to .epub or any other format. See this tutorial for a quick overview of how to add PDF files to iBooks to read on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. This tutorial will remain up just in case someone wants to create an .epub of their PDF. iBooks uses an ebook format called ePub. Using a free converter application (and ebook manager) called calibre you can quickly convert PDF (and other file formats) to .epub files, which you can then transfer to your iPad for reading in iBooks. This tutorial will take you step by step through the entire process.

Start out by finding a PDF you want to convert. In this example I used The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (which btw is free in the iTunes Book Store – but it’s a PDF I had handy, so that’s why I’m using it).

Download and install calibre. It comes in versions for Windows, OS X and Linux. The interface is very slightly different in each version (not much). The screenshots in this tutorial are from the OS X version – but Windows users should have no problem at all following along.

Once installed, open calibre. The first time you run calibre it will take you through a quick setup. The first thing you’ll want to do is specify your ‘ebooks’ folder. This is the location you’ll save your .epub files. Click the Change button.

calibre will now download additional information about your PDF/ebook – if it can find it. If it’s an eBook (as a .pdf), you may need to manually enter the book title and author name if it isn’t present when you load it into calibre initially.

Now we’ll start the actual conversion process. Make sure your PDF file is selected in the main list of books, and then click the small arrow next to the Convert E-books button. From the list that will appear, select Convert individually

Depending on the size of your PDF/eBook the conversion process will vary. It took less than 10 seconds to convert my 200 page PDF. If you’re using a Mac and have growl installed, you’ll get a window notifying you that the conversion has finished.

And now in the folder you specified way back in step #3 will contain an .epub version of your PDF. This is the file we’ll upload to your iPad.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Step 1:Setting up the Workspace

Okay! First step is to set up the workspace.Open Photoshop (For your help, I`m using Adobe Photoshop CS5) and create a new canvas of 1300×950 px.

The layout will be 840px wide.Now, draw 2 vertical guides at 230px and 1070px to delimit the layout,like in the image.

Step 2: Creating the background

I`m going to add a gradient to the background and after, I`ll add some noise to it to make it rough.Create a new layer and add to it a gradient like in the image below:

We can`t add noise to the layer because it has blending options applied.We should have a stand alone layer to do that.Create a new layer and merge it with the first layer.Now we have a stand alone layer which supports the noise effect and which has the gradient incorporated.

Now select the last layer and add it an uniform noise of 1.5% (Filter->Noise->Add Noise)

You should obtain something like this:

Step 3: Creating the header

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and draw at the top of the canvas a rectangle with the height of 50px and wide of 1300px.After that, apply to it some blending options like Gradient Overlay and Drop Shadow:

Now, under the top-bar add a white horizontal line of 1px to create a deeper effect between the header and the background.

Over the header bar, draw another rectangle with the height of 25px and the width of 1300px also and make sure to be white.Change its opacity to 7-10% to obtain an Apple Iphone transparency effect!

In the right side of the top-bar, we`ll add the navigation menu.Add some text buttons.As shown in the image below, I draw a white rectangle using the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a Radius of 5px and made the “Home” text black.Then I added some blending options to the button to make it look good.The font used is Myriad Pro, Semibold, 14px.

On the left side of the header, add a logo using some text…I used some dummy text: My Iphone App. I used Myriad Pro as font and added the same blending options which the button has.So far, the image looks good.

Step 4: Adding a big Iphone

I`m going to add a brand new Iphone 4G from our friends from DeviantArt.Search for “Iphone 4 PSD” and you should have a list there.If you want the link, click here.After I downloaded the Iphone, I resized it to 60% and hided the layer called “Reflection”.I allowed myself to change the image from the Iphone screen with a print screen of my website.

Step 5: Adding some text

I added some text on the right side of the canvas using Myriad Pro font and different fonts and colors.

We are at the half of the tutorial and the image looks like this:

Step 6: Creating an Iphone navigation slider

Ok, this is a nice step.I`m gonna show you how to create a beautiful navigation like in the fancy Iphone Apps.Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw a rectangle with a Radius of 7px under the Iphone.

Now add the next blending options:

Voila!

Now add numbers from 1 to 4 like in the image:

You noticed that the number “2″ is black.Is a reason for that.This will be the active button.Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) and draw a small rectangle under the number “2″.Add the next blending options to it:

The small iphone nav looks like this:

Step 7

Step number 7 is about creating 2 buttons which every Iphone App Website needs: The “Buy this app from Apple” and “Live Demo of the app”.Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) and with a Radius of 7px, draw a small rectangle under the text.

Add to it the next blending options:

Download this Iphone small icon from IconFinder, make it white and add it to the button.Then write inside the button with Myriad Pro font “Available now on the Apple Store” ! The button is ready to be clicked!

Duplicate this button and align the duplicated one near to the original.Change the text with “View a Live Demo” or something like this and create a small “Play” button using the Custom Shape Tool(U).

We`re almost there.We have to build a footer and the layout is ready.Take a look at what we`ve done till now:

Step 8: Creating the footer background:

Select the Rectangle tool and draw a big rectangle at the bottom of the canvas.Add it the same gradient used at the “Apple Store” button.

The footer looks sleek now but we want to make it look rough like the background. For this, you have to repeat the Add Noise process used when we made the background: Create a new layer and merge it with the footer layer and apply to the new layer the Noise filter (Filter->Noise->Add Noise – 1.5%).You should obtain the next effect:

At the top of the footer draw 2 lines:a white line and a black line and but the white line just above the white line to create a nice effect.

The background of the footer is finished and looks like this:

Step 9: Creating a “Subscribe” box

Now that the footer background is ready, I want to show you how to create an Apple inspired “Subscribe” box.Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and with a Radius of 7px draw a rectangle like in the image below:

Now add the next blending options to the box:

The box should look like this:

Inside the box, we`ll create 2 fields and a submit button.Let`s start with the fields.Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool again and draw a small rectangle inside the box:

Stylize the field by adding the next blending options to it:

Duplicate the field obtained and move it under the first like in the image.

The fields are ready.To make the “Submit” button, duplicate one more time a field and place it under them.Clear the styles of the layer (Right Click on the layer and select “Clear Layer Style”) and add the next blending options to it:

The button is almost ready.

I wanted to add to the button a shine effect.For this, I selected the layer(Ctrl+Click on the layer) and with the Rectangular Marquee Tool(M) I subtracted the bottom half of the selection.Then I created a new layer and filled the remaining selection with white.After that, I reduced the opacity to 10% and obtained a nice glass effect for the button.Is the same procedure used at the header background.Finally, add some text to finish the box. The result looks nice,don`t you think?

Step 10: Finishing the footer

Now with some text, populate the left side of the footer. I thought to make this by creating a “Features” area, with the features of the app.The small icons used are from the PixeloPhilia Icon Set, a beautiful set of free icons.Don`t forget to add your copyright details at the bottom of the layer.The footer is ready!

The final image is ready too! This was a nice tutorial and made me pleasure to write it for you.I hope you read it with pleasure too!Take a look at the final layout below:Click image for full view.